Rio Real Estate Soars 34.9% in 2011: Daily

By Ben Tavener, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The average residential rent in Rio de Janeiro soared 21.4 percent in 2011, according to information from the FipeZap Index. In the same period, rents in São Paulo increased 14.5 percent. The rate used to adjust rents, the IGP-M, however, rose by just 5.1 percent – four times less than the increase witnessed in Rio.

If that number looks high, for sales, the average square meter in Rio rose a staggering 34.9 percent – the most out of the seven regions surveyed.

Brazil’s most expensive real estate is still in Brasília – R$7,919 per average square meter, with Rio hot on its heels at an average R$7,421 – with its two most expensive neighborhoods, Leblon and Ipanema, both more than double that.

Certainly not good news to vacationers looking for temporary apartments in Rio for the high-season. But also not slowing the tide, as the annual growth of travelers disembarking from international flights in Brazil has grown fifteen percent from 2010 to 2011.

As high as these latest real estate price statistics are, the rent and sales increases in Rio actually represent a small slowdown in the market – as the rate had gone up by an ever higher amount in 2009 and 2010.

Experts explain this relative cooling-off through a range of factors, including a lack of investment, poor infrastructure and even violence in the city, but hope major sporting on the horizon – the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics – mean these issues can be addressed, to the indirect benefit of the housing market.

Read more (in Portuguese).

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